Played a bit tonight. Went to Belsavis and it was lagging like crazy with only 50-60 people. I was getting 1-3s pauses during fights and mobs ghosting all over the place.

After getting my hotkeys setup again and spending my talent points and setting up preferences again, I finally got to the action after about an hour of bs caused by the patch and my last server merger.

Ran into issues on Belsavis with mobs being camped and kills being stolen due to lack of marksman spawns. It's really annoying to see it, especially after seeing how GW2 solved this problem. Also makes me wonder why SWTOR didn't make it an instanced area if there are going to be so few spawns with such a low drop rate (unless it is yet another bugged daily... the one in Ilum stayed bugged for like 4 months or more).

My overall impression of the night was mostly just noticing one thing after another that GW2 does right and SWTOR does not. Hopefully my next session will be better... but it won't like be until after the GW2 events coming up this weekend.

Free-to-Play is here! Players can now experience Star Wars: The Old Republic up to level 50 (with certain restrictions) without paying a subscription fee. The Cartel Market is now accessible. Players can use Cartel Coins to purchase boosts, unlocks, cosmetic items, and more! Travel to Section X on Belsavis and learn why the nefarious Dread Guard has seized control of this ravaged area of the planet! Section X can be accessed on Belsavis and via the daily mission shuttles. HK-51 can now be acquired as a Companion Character! A shipment of the infamous Assassin Droids can be found in the wreck of an Imperial transport ship, The Fatality, in Section X. Reactivating HK-51 requires finding and assembling parts from across the galaxy. Nightmare Mode is now available for Operation: Explosive Conflict! Bosses in Nightmare Mode present a new level of challenge, new mechanics, and high-quality rewards (such as a new vehicle and Dread Guard set pieces)! Dreadtooth, a new world boss, can be found roaming Section X. Each time Dreadtooth is defeated, he returns with a temporary, stacking power buff which increases his difficulty and the quality of his loot rewards.

General

The names of guilds that are inactive (any guild that has had no members log in for 8 weeks) will now be released for use by new guilds. If a guild member logs back in once a name is released, that guild member can reclaim the guild's name if it has not been taken. If the name has been taken, the guild will be granted a free rename. If no member of a guild logs in for 8 weeks, the next guild member to log in will be promoted to Guild Leader.

Classes and Combat

Subscribers are no longer charged credits for skill point re-specializations.

Jedi Knight Sith Warrior

Sentinel Watchman Merciless Zeal's healing has been reduced to .5% per point (down from 1% per point).

Maurader Annihilation Hungering's healing has been reduced to .5% per point (down from 1% per point).

Group Finder

Travelling to a new area while in a Group Finder queue no longer occasionally causes the UI to behave as if the player is not in the queue.

Missions and NPCs

Some missions on Origin Worlds now offer Experience Boost rewards.

Items

The cost to remove mods from items has been reduced for subscribers. The Collector's Edition vehicle and all vehicles available in the Cartel Market can now be used with the lowest-level rank. Their speed now scales based on the rank unlocked by characters. Subscribers can now access speeders at level 15. Campaign armorings are now available for purchase on the Black Hole vendor for Black Hole Commendations. Dread Guard relics are now available on the Daily vendor for 300 Daily Commendations. A new set of droid armor is now available from the Daily vendor. More robes have been adjusted so that their backsides are not inappropriately large when worn. New speeder vendors are now available on Taris (Republic) and Balmorra (Imperial).

Legacy

Players can now unlock their Legacy at level 10. The Legacy panel now accommodates much larger Legacies. Each rank of the Legacy Experience perk now grants +6% experience (as opposed to a gradual increase of +2/4/6/8/10). The total possible bonus from Legacy perks is still 30% in each category.

PvP

The caps for Warzone and Ranked Warzone Commendations have been increased. All players can now accumulate up to 4500 Ranked Warzone Commendations and 2750 Warzone Commendations. Elite War Hero armorings, barrels, and hilts have had their stats improved slightly.

UI

Several emotes are now voiced! Subscribers now have access to 2 additional quickslot bars. Different quickslot bars can no longer be jumped to in the primary quickslot bar if they are already visible in another location on-screen. The deposit for items placed on the GTN is now a percentage of the item's value (instead of being based on the player's set price). Vehicles, mini-pets, weapons, the results of crafting schematics, and color crystals can now be previewed in the item preview window. An additional Cargo Hold can now be purchased. The title selection window is now scrollable. Players can now choose their Legacy name display from this window. A progress bar has been added to the currency pane to indicate player proximity to currency caps.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

Several typos and instances of incorrect text have been corrected in all languages. The Imperial Medcenter in the vicinity of the wreck of the Ambria's Fury has been moved Northeast. An issue that caused dark outlines to appear around characters' eyes has been corrected.

I may be mistaken, but I cant find my fleet pass. (hearth of sorts to the station) Did they remove it, or inactivate it for F2P? I'll be a bit upset if its gone because wasn't it a perk for the CE or some such? Been awhile since I've played. I may resub for kicks anyway, it seems a lot of things in F2P kind of nerfs the whole experiance.. Reduced XP, everythign costs cartel pts, which will take 4 months to collect enough for what you want (it seems) which of course you can buy with RL money for F2P use...kind of a wash really I think.

You can buy Fleet Passes from the Security Key vendor if you have a Security Key enabled on your account.

There is also an 'Emergency Fleet Pass' ability that I think is under Legacy or something in the abilities dialog (p).

I'm not sure the state of that for F2P. I know that medical probes (res at point of death without running back) are limited or purchase only for F2P. Lots of those convenience things that aren't required to make it through the story quests are bought with CCs.

F2P...concept is nice if one was thinkig of trying the game out for kicks. If you like the game, may as well just pony up the 15 bucks for a month. Less limitations on PvP, dungeons, don't get nerfed exp for quests, fleet pass, more than 2 action bars (24 slots fill up fast - like by lvl 15 iirc), bonus cartel coins etc. I just re-upped for 60 days as the pvp limit is like, 2 a day or some such. So, if any WoWers wanted to check it out (F2P) by all means, come on over...change up from your dailies :p but if you like it, I recommend subbing in.

Yeah, it is certainly worth at least getting a 1 month sub if you are coming back. A lot of the previous issues are resolved. No longer will you feel alone in game or that there is no market for your goods. The new large servers are very active. OPs/FPs are happening all of the time. Even PUGs frequently clear OPs and even HM OPs. PVP queues are generally pretty quick as well.